COACH Dean Bailey has said his side must win more than 32 quarters this season and regain the type of consistency it showed earlier in the year.
The Demons have won just one match and produced a draw since stringing together three consecutive wins from rounds three to five.
Bailey said Melbourne must hit back hard against St Kilda this Sunday at Etihad Stadium, on the back of its 44-point loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.
“We haven’t won enough quarters yet, so before you look at the end result, we’re still at 21 or 22 quarters we’ve won - last year was 32,” he said from AAMI Park on Friday.
“We’ve got to get past 32 and we want to be in games more.
“Our inconsistency is an issue that we’ve been addressing. The only way we can address it is by playing games and getting better at it. That’s clearly got to be our focus, before we think about anything else.”
Intensity at the ball, right from the opening bounce, is also Bailey’s mantra this round.
“At the start of the game, our intensity has got to be right up - even if we’re over the top with it, I’d rather be over the top with it than low,” Bailey said.
“Again time will tell and we expect a far better competitive effort than what we showed last week.”
Bailey said Melbourne will continue to take on the game, even against the miserly St Kilda defence.
“I think you’ve got to go into the game knowing you can score,” he said.
“The stats will show that they’re difficult to score against and that shouldn’t be a great deterrent from us trying to score. [We should] be a little bit bold with our decision making and bolder with our kicking, rather than our handballing.
“We’ve got to kick the ball better and we’ve got to have a pretty high kicking efficiency and if you’re kicking the ball well, you’re a chance to score.”
Bailey remains optimistic his charges will step-up this round, citing its efforts against another flag contender Collingwood, as a reason why his team can take it up to St Kilda.
“The last three and a half quarters against Collingwood were competitive in where we want to be at - we want to be competing against the best teams in the competition,” he said.
“The performance last week against Adelaide in Adelaide was below being consistent.
“We need to show a lot more fight on Sunday.”
Bailey also played down any major concerns regarding the Etihad Stadium surface, which has come under the microscope in recent times.
“We don’t train on it and we haven’t played on it for a while,” he said.
“I think the fact some of it gets chopped up - even last night [in the Carlton and Brisbane Lions match] some of the guys were sliding on it … once the ball’s bounced, I think you’re more focused on getting the footy more than anything else.”
The Demons have won just one match and produced a draw since stringing together three consecutive wins from rounds three to five.
Bailey said Melbourne must hit back hard against St Kilda this Sunday at Etihad Stadium, on the back of its 44-point loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.
“We haven’t won enough quarters yet, so before you look at the end result, we’re still at 21 or 22 quarters we’ve won - last year was 32,” he said from AAMI Park on Friday.
“We’ve got to get past 32 and we want to be in games more.
“Our inconsistency is an issue that we’ve been addressing. The only way we can address it is by playing games and getting better at it. That’s clearly got to be our focus, before we think about anything else.”
Intensity at the ball, right from the opening bounce, is also Bailey’s mantra this round.
“At the start of the game, our intensity has got to be right up - even if we’re over the top with it, I’d rather be over the top with it than low,” Bailey said.
“Again time will tell and we expect a far better competitive effort than what we showed last week.”
Bailey said Melbourne will continue to take on the game, even against the miserly St Kilda defence.
“I think you’ve got to go into the game knowing you can score,” he said.
“The stats will show that they’re difficult to score against and that shouldn’t be a great deterrent from us trying to score. [We should] be a little bit bold with our decision making and bolder with our kicking, rather than our handballing.
“We’ve got to kick the ball better and we’ve got to have a pretty high kicking efficiency and if you’re kicking the ball well, you’re a chance to score.”
Bailey remains optimistic his charges will step-up this round, citing its efforts against another flag contender Collingwood, as a reason why his team can take it up to St Kilda.
“The last three and a half quarters against Collingwood were competitive in where we want to be at - we want to be competing against the best teams in the competition,” he said.
“The performance last week against Adelaide in Adelaide was below being consistent.
“We need to show a lot more fight on Sunday.”
Bailey also played down any major concerns regarding the Etihad Stadium surface, which has come under the microscope in recent times.
“We don’t train on it and we haven’t played on it for a while,” he said.
“I think the fact some of it gets chopped up - even last night [in the Carlton and Brisbane Lions match] some of the guys were sliding on it … once the ball’s bounced, I think you’re more focused on getting the footy more than anything else.”
